KIRK WEST as told to
ALAN PAUL:
The Allman Brothers Band: The Road Goes On Forever
(first published in 'Guitar World', January 1993)

ible tapes of those
sessions: Betts playing
the chrorus of "Ramblin'
Man" (then called "Ramblin'
Country Man"); the whole
band playing a jazzy,
freeform version of
Rodgers and
Hammerstein's "My
Favorite Things"; and
three different versions
of "Blue Sky," with
Dickey showing it to the
band and everyone
working out their parts.
That's how they worked
songs out - individually
bringing ideas in and
jamming them into songs.
A few months later, they
went to Miami and began
recording.At the end of
October, the Allman
Brothers took a
well-deserved break from
the sessions and
returned to Macon. After
showing up at the band's
"Big House"to offer
birthday greetings to
Berry Oakley's wife,
Linda, on October 29,
Duane took off on his
motorcycle. He swerved
to avoid a truck and was
killed in the resulting
fall. He was one month
shy of his twenty-fifth
birthday.Gregg wrote "Ain't
Wasting Time No More"
within three weeks of
Duane's death, and it
was the last thing put
on Eat A Peach.
It's a perfect summation
of the band's view of
how they were going to
handle things. The band
played Carnegie Hall on
Thanksgiving (three
weeks after Duane's
death), so they clearly
never thought about not
con-